METAIRIE, La. — Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy was in the New Orleans area Thursday for a couple of events.
Around 10 a.m., he attended the grand opening of the Jencare Senior Medical Center off of Houma Boulevard and Manhattan Street in Metairie.
Then at noon, he went to the American Shoulder and Elbow surgeons annual meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel downtown.
This appearance comes after a tumultuous month for the Senator who saw ABC Late Night Host Jimmy Kimmel blasting him on national television.
Kimmel said Cassidy lied to his face, referring to a May appearance by Cassidy, after Kimmel’s son had open heart surgery. That appearance inspired Cassidy to come up with the so-called “Jimmy Kimmel Test” — which Kimmel said required that no family be denied medical care because they can’t afford it.
He says Cassidy’s proposal failed the very test he promoted.
Soon after, that health care bill was not voted on because there wouldn’t have been enough votes to pass it. Republican Sens. John McCain, Susan Collins, and Rand Paul all voiced opposition to it.
Cassidy’s appearance lands on the day President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order to promote “Health care choice and competition.”
The order would allow individuals and small businesses to band together to form associations. Those associations would then buy large group health plans from states with the fewest regulations.
Supporters say this would allow more people to get insurance at a lower cost, but several experts in healthcare law say the executive order may violate the U.S. Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The federal law governs large group plans, that have to be provided or be maintained by employers.
This executive order comes two weeks after the latest GOP effort to repeal Obamacare failed.